fulfil the duties of our state of life: but we should not, on this account, neglect to hear and meditate on the divine word. 'These things you ought to have done, and not leave those undone' (Matt. 23:23). Pray and work!" The diversity of modern interpretations includes a number of female voices as part of the larger conversation. Among these voices are women interpreters such as Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Mary Rose D’Angelo, and Barbara Reid. Sook Ja Chung argues that a feminist reading of this passage must take into account the perspective of women, especially those who have been oppressed, and must understand that a traditional patriarchal reading of this passage can be problematic as it diminishes the value of Martha’s role in saying her work is not as important or that she is focusing on the wrong things. Setting It is not entirely clear where this story is set, and who the characters in it are. Although there are several similarities between these Mary and Martha and those in John 11–12, no brother called Lazarus appears. Whether this Mary is also the unnamed woman who anointed Jesus's head in Matthew 26 and Mark 14 is not generally agreed. Moreover, scholars generally agree that unnamed sinful woman in Luke 7 is not Mary of Bethany nor Mary Magdalene either, and Luke 7:39 has the sinful woman living in a town (probably Nain, mentioned in 7:11), not in an unnamed village as Martha and Mary do in Luke 10.) Jesus was staying in; the preceding narrative of the Raising of the son of the widow of Nain (7:11–17) locates Jesus in Nain. Luke 7:11–17 labels Nain a polis three times, in verses 7:11 and 7:12. On the other hand, the unnamed place where Mary and Martha live in Luke 10:38–42 is labelled a 'village' (Greek: κώμη, kómè) in verse 10:38. Luke therefore linguistically connects the sinful woman to a city/town, and distinguishes the unnamed home of Mary and Martha as a village. Due to the parallels with John 11–12, this unnamed village has traditionally often been identified with the Judean village of Bethany, for example by Poole (1669), Gill (1748), Benson (1857), Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871), Ellicott (1878), Barnes (1884), Farrar (1891), and the Pulpit Commentary (1800s). However, Luke 10 appears to be set strictly in Galilee, and thus gives no geographic reason to identify the unnamed village of Martha and Mary with